ATBNG

That first Indy/Pats game was so long ago, and was sloppy on both sides (not surprising since they're so close to training camp). What about the two other losses Indy has? It's not like they're close to being undefeated. They're pummeling bad teams right now, but I'm not putting any stock in it meaning anything come January. They're still shaping up as a passing team that will be forced to face two January road games on fields that don't favor speed if they want to go to the Super Bowl. Not only is that going to slow down their offense, but it will hurt their defense which is filled with undersized quick guys. The Colts are built for November.

CVA - I'm just guessing that it will be an away game if it comes to fruition because of my later post. They don't want ticket holders with longish drives getting home at 3-4 AM. The Bills have the AFC West and the NFC South next year, so the Jets, Chargers and Pats look like candidates.

The management is on record as saying that they don't like home night games due to the longer than average travel times for many of its season ticket holders. It's a reasonable thought, but it removes a nice advantage though for the organization. Look at how Cincy exploded at home this season after a long drought in between MNF home contests.

CBS should get the Monday night package by default next year so that it will be AFC teams only. If the Bills' finish 8-8 or above, they will get a Monday night road game.

You don't want to know.

It's a three way tie for seasonal tunes. Fairytale in New York by the Pogues Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by U2 Do They Know It's Christmas by Band-Aid Special shout-out to the Pixies for The Holiday Song. For classic hymns, I'm partial to "What Child is This?"

Baltimore did a very similar thing in 2003. They overpaid for Boller because they were desperate for a QB, but justified it using this logic. Now a year and a half later, he's still merely adequate - not a significant upgrade from Anthony Wright, and has shown nothing in terms of evolving into a better pro prospect. Meanwhile, New England has Eugene Wilson and Vince Wilfork. Besides McGahee and (maybe) Dallas Clark, hardly anyone taken between Boller and Wilson is better than Wilson himself, and of the three Wilson might be the best fit for their needs in the first place.

The best analogy that I can come up with is that the Losman trade is like buying a lottery ticket. Until the drawing is held, it is impossible to say whether the decision will or will not be correct, but it is fair to say that it was decidedly against the odds. The smart move is not to play the lottery. I'm not writing JP off - it really has nothing to do with him - but merely finding fault with a GM who would deal a 15, a 43, and a 144 for a 22. There will be exceptions when the 22 adds up to more than the 15, 43, and 144, but they will be rare. We certainly don't have any evidence that this is one of those cases yet (if anything, Jones at 43 has shown more than Losman at 22, and Dallas still have the highest pick in the deal in hand).

I think I am using my head and being completely fair. I think there is a blind spot that solutions at the QB position have to be made in the first round of the draft. Warner (UDFA), Dilfer (1st, but available for much less at this point in his career), Brady (6th), Brad Johnson (9th), and Brady (6th) are your last five Super Bowl winning QB's. TD has expended two first round picks in four years on QB's and hasn't yet put together a team that is +.500. Bledsoe was a huge error because he gave up too much for him considering that no one else seemed to be in the bidding, he really can't play at the level of his salary (divisional rival has no problem playing against him twice a year), he's at the end of his career, and he's too one-dimensional/athletically limited. Losman was a huge error because he got fleeced on the trade in terms of value. Even if the Bills finish 9-7 and draft somewhere around 15th, you'll still have traded picks 15, 43 and 144 for pick 22, and that is a horrible, terrible, atrocious deal! That type of management at that level is going to kill the team in the long run even if JP works out, because it seems to indicate that TD thinks he's smarter than all the other GM's, but his record indicates otherwise.

Peppers? Peppers??? Ugh. He plays on a great line so he can pile up decent stats, but he's a pretty one dimensional player. Is he even above average against the run? I'd go with Richard Seymour first - intelligent, versatile athletic player who is clutch and a proven winner and still shy of his prime. After him, I'd probably suck it up and go with the dirty but dominant Kevin Mawae. After that, probably Randy Moss. He still is the athletic freak at his position. After that, I think I'm looking at Marcus Stroud. I'm not a Manning fan. I think his style is antithetical to winning in the playoffs. I like McNabb and Brady ahead of him. I love Ed Reed, but I find it hard to believe that one should build an NFL team around a safety when salaries seem to indicate it is the least important regular position on the field. I'm looking on the line (both O and D) well before safety. I think the first guy I'd want on the Bills is Takeo.

Yikes. You guys are drinking the Kool-aid big time after those easy wins. McGahee has been great but let's see how he holds up. The Losman trade was still an embarassing fleece job. The Bledsoe trade, and subsequent extension, were two huge errors. He has put together a very good defense, but a lot of its key components (Adams, Milloy, Vincent, Fletcher) are getting up there quickly in age. None of the above four fall into the category of "bargains." This year the specials have played well enough that he seems to have done better in terms of filling out the lower half of his roster. I still say he is the fundamental problem with the team, and should be canned at the end of the year.

Again - the actresses' original heritage should be meaningless, but only that she should appear in movie that are distributed in this country (I hate to say "Hollywood" movies). There may be some wonderful actresses in Europe, South America and Asia that we aren't familiar with. See - I think Julia Roberts is atrocious as an actress. I didn't see "Erin Brockovich" but everything else I have seen her in (Pelican Brief, Ocean's 11, Pretty Woman, Mystic Pizza) she has been decidedly underwhelming. If I had to pick an actress from Mystic Pizza, I'd go with Lili Taylor over Julia.

You know what - I completely forgot about her but wished I had remembered her in the discussion. I've only seen two of her movies (Elizabeth, The Gift) but she was excellent in both (even though The Gift was an atrocious movie, she maintained her dignity). I'm not into LOTR - maybe I should see "Pushing Tin." I think you may have it OTR....

I think Meryl Streep is fantastic, but she's not really current. She was in "Angels in America" (and typically excellent) but I can't remember her being in a Hollywood movie since "The River Wild." She was clearly the choice during the Eighties, with some solid competition from Jodie Foster. I hope she returns to acting more frequently now that she may have more time available. I think that Hilary Swank and Scarlett Johansson each have an extraordinary performance to their credit, but more is clearly needed. I think of Holly Hunter and Kathy Bates as good character actresses, but they're eons away from icon status.

My friends and I were talking about this while on vacation last weekend in Montreal. We had a somewhat animated discussion about who the best actor was currently (Ed Norton, Tim Robbins, Robert DeNiro, Bill Murray all were considered) but sadly we couldn't even come up with a plausible woman to be called America's best actress. Does anyone have any nominations? She doesn't have to be American, but should appear in American movies. Where have all the Rita Hayworths, Katherine Hepburns, and Meryl Streeps gone? (If you can spare yourself from the obvious Jenna Jameson, etc. posts on this one, I would appreciate it.)

This is the sound....of silence. Great post.

I'm guessing the biggest fraud will be whoever ends up winning the NFC West and actually moving on into the playoffs. I think all four of those teams would be 4-12, 5-11 at best in the AFC. The AFC East has gone 10-2 against that division so far. They've outscored them 336-190, and this is with our worst club (Miami) having played all four games already. Outside of Miami, the AFC East is 8-0 with every game won by 8 points or more.

My original name was alwaysthebridesmaidnevergilbride, and was the longest name allowable at TSW/2BD at 32 characters. I got some complaints though because the long name was screwing up the page view on the main page for posters when I started a topic. I then asked Scott if I could change it to ATBNG, and he graciously complied. Not one person has yet complained because I was hacking on Kevin Gilbride.

Good guess. Right now the line is hovering between Bills 3 and 3.5. 3.5 would be a great sign for the Bills. I imagine that Miami stat becomes less meaningful as the team is so much worse this year than it was in the past - they've been at or above .500 during that entire trend. I can understand it though from an emotional/physical letdown point of view - it makes sense.

I think that would be hysterical if the Bills were 9-6 and both the Pats and Steelers were 14-1 heading into that Sunday. It would be like cats and dogs uniting for a week on here. I tend to agree with you, but I think that Big Ben is probably going to get the benefit of the doubt from most until he loses a game. Still, he has been playing worse and worse each week as defenses start to generate useful film on him, and Cleveland and Cincinnati were able to limit him yet clearly not each other yesterday. Generally though I think that Buffalo is good enough to beat any team at home.

One of the best system gambling plays over the last decade or so has been taking a home underdog coming off a road win as an underdog. I don't know what the final spread was on the Mia/SF game (I saw E on Saturday, so maybe technically the Dolphins are not applicable), but Miami is close to qualifying. Throw in the division home revenge game factor as well as the consecutive cross country road game thing for the Bills, and I think that it is clear that the historical psychological stuff heavily favors the Fins this week. This stuff is never 100% of course, but I wouldn't chalk this puppy up by any stretch.

Exactly. Just what has Stephen Jackson done??

For what it is worth, my family does a Super Bowl draft every Thanksgiving - 6 people each get 3 teams. Here were the results from today. 1. New England 2. Pittsburgh 3. Philadelphia 4. Indianapolis 5. Atlanta 6. Minnesota 7. Green Bay 8. Denver 9. Seattle 10. NY Jets 11. Baltimore 12. San Diego 13. NY Giants 14. St. Louis 15. Jacksonville 16. Kansas City 17. Tampa Bay 18. Tennessee Whoever gets the first pick gets the 12th pick, and then the third round is just random draw.

Thanks soljc - unfortunately, I don't like the Bills this week. I try to avoid bad road teams, and the Bills certainly qualify. On the other hand, the AFC is so much better than the AFC that I can't in good conscience lay 5 with Seattle - they could easily drop any game to anyone - witness the game last week. I tend to gravitate towards home dogs, and it just so happened that the Bills turned up last week. Good luck to all our "investors" this time around.

A PPPPPledge pin? On your uniform???